Canadian Duet in 5th Place after Qualification Round
After the first of three segments of the Artistic Swimming Duet event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Summer Games, Canada’s duo of Claudia Holzner, 27, (Calgary, Alberta) and Jacqueline Simoneau, 24, (Saint-Laurent, Que.) sit in fifth place.
Continuing their strong season, which saw them win gold at the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final, the two completed the Duet Free Routine Preliminary with a score of 91.2333. They are poised to achieve their goal of moving up in the world ranking – and currently sit 3.7 points from the bronze medal position. Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) athletes are in first place, followed by China, Ukraine and Japan.
First-time Olympian Holzner reflected on how their swim sets them up for the remainder of the competition. “It’s the hardest routine we have ever done in our career. After today’s performance we can be really confident going into tomorrow. Today we are celebrating this moment. Tomorrow we will start focussing on the technical routine but I think we can be really confident and that we can push the bar and keep going up and up!”
The two, who have moved up two placements in the world standings since 2019, will compete again on August 3rd, with their Technical Routine. Scores from the first two portions of the competition (Preliminary Free and Technical) are added together, and the top 12 duets, from the field of 22, advance to swim in the Free Routine Final on August 4th. The Technical Routine score carries over and is added to the Free Routine Final score to determine the medallists and placements.